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Floods Reveal Nat'l Security Threat 03/22 06:15
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. (AP) -- The Missouri River floodwater surging on
to the air base housing the U.S. military's Strategic Command overwhelmed
round-the-clock sandbagging by airmen and others. They had to scramble to save
sensitive equipment, munitions and dozens of aircraft.
Days into the flooding, muddy water was still lapping at almost 80 flooded
buildings at Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base, some inundated by up to 7 feet
(2.1 meters) of water. Piles of waterlogged corn cobs, husks and stalks lay
heaped everywhere that the water had receded, swept onto the base from
surrounding fields.
"In the end, obviously, the waters were just too much. It took over
everything we put up," Col. David Norton, who is in charge of facilities at the
base, told an Associated Press reporter on a tour of the damage. "The speed at
which it came in was shocking."
Though the headquarters of Strategic Command, which plays a central role in
detecting and striking at global threats, wasn't damaged, the flooding provided
a dramatic example of how climate change poses a national security threat, even
as the Trump administration plays down the issue.
It is also a reminder that the kind of weather extremes escalating with
climate change aren't limited to the coasts, said retired Rear Adm. David W.
Titley.
"We're probably do need some walls --- but they're probably levees. I would
say those are the kinds of walls we need," said Titley, founder of both the
Navy's Task Force on Climate Change and the Center for Solutions to Weather and
Climate Risk at Penn State University. He was referring to the administration's
proposal to take money from the military's construction budget to build
President Donald Trump's desired southern border walls.
The late-winter floods that have swept over Plains states starting last week
--- breaching levees, halting Amtrak trains, and killing at least three people
--- are also the second major inundation in less than a decade to hit the air
base outside Omaha.
It would takes weeks or more for scientists to determine if the Plains
flooding, or any weather disaster, was caused or worsened by climate change,
which is occurring as emissions from coal, oil and gas alter the atmosphere.
But federal agencies and scientists around the world agree that climate change
already is making natural disasters more frequent, stronger and longer.
The military has warned in a series of reports under past administrations
that climate change is a security threat on many fronts. That includes "through
direct impacts on U.S. military infrastructure and by affecting factors,
including food and water availability, that can exacerbate conflict outside
U.S. borders," the federal government's grim climate report said last year.
But Trump has belittled his own government's warnings. During a January cold
spell, he tweeted his wish for "a little of that good old fashioned Global
Warming!" In response to security warnings on climate change, the Trump
administration has allowed a physicist who rejects scientific consensus on
manmade climate change to start organizing a White House panel to make its own
determination.
Responding to an AP inquiry, the White House's National Security Council did
not directly address whether the administration sees climate change as a
national security threat, but said it takes the issue of climate change
seriously.
But the Trump White House's national security strategy mentions climate only
in the context of "countering an anti-growth energy agenda" for fossil fuels.
Department of Defense spokeswoman Heather Babb said the department "works to
ensure installations and infrastructure are resilient to a wide range of
challenges, including climate."
"DOD will focus on ensuring it remains ready and able to adapt to a wide
variety of threats - regardless of the source - to fulfill our mission to deter
war and ensure our nation's security," Babb said.
Under the Trump administration, unlike in previous administrations, the
Pentagon has offered little public comment on climate change as a security
threat. The Pentagon's guiding star of defense planning, known as the National
Defense Strategy, does not even mention climate change.
That leaves it to former military leaders to raise the alarm about how
climate change could affect national security. Retired Brig. Gen. Gerald
Galloway said that worsening bouts of weather --- floods cutting off troops'
way in and out of bases, high waves complicating landings, heat waves depriving
aircraft of the lift they need to fly --- are all problems the military could
be dealing with.
Military bases are launch platforms and you "can't fight a war unless you've
got a place to leave from," said Galloway, a member of the Center for Climate
and Security's advisory board.
Titley predicted Offutt Air Force Base would prove the latest military
installation to have racked up $1 billion or more in damage. Hurricanes struck
North Carolina's Camp Lejeune in September and Tyndall Air Force Base in
Florida in October.
The current political atmosphere discourages any big efforts building up
base defenses against climate change, said Titley, who also served as chief
operating officer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Defense Department officials "by and large know what they need to do, but
it's very hard for them to do. White House dynamics are the White House does
not want to hear about it," he said.
"The Pentagon is really between a rock and a hard spot here," Titley said.
Earlier heavy flooding at Offutt has prompted the base to start raising its
levee by 2 feet this year, said Maj. Meghan M. Liemburg-Archer, spokeswoman for
Strategic Command.
Sandbagging had held back 2011 floods at the base. The flooding that poured
in starting March 15 was worse, Norton, the base's support group commander,
said.
"It was all hands on deck," Norton said. "All through the night, we worked.
It was thousands of people, in total, working to sandbag, move in huge Hesco
barriers; a whole host of people clearing equipment out of facilities, moving
munitions ... even crews doing things like disconnecting power. It was a
massive effort."
More than 30 aircraft were towed to higher ground or flown to other
locations. Crews hauled out loads of equipment, engines and tools.
By Saturday, the flood had rolled over a third of the base, swamping more
than 1.2 million square feet of buildings.
Though Strategic Command headquarters escaped flooding, it had to cut staff
to a minimum as high water blocked roads. The command holds down a range of
responsibilities, including global strike capacity, missile defense, nuclear
operations and strategic deterrence.
Inundated buildings include the 55th Wing headquarters, the massive Bennie
L. Davis Maintenance Facility and a building that houses the 55th Wing's flight
simulators.
About 3,000 feet of the base's 11,700-foot runway is submerged.
"The good news is that no one on the base was injured," Norton said. "We
know how lucky we are."
Touring Offutt, the base's fire chief, Dave Eblin, kicked one of the soggy
corn cobs strewn throughout the base. Asked whether there had been some type of
fodder silo that ruptured nearby, Eblin just laughed.
"No, it came in from the fields. Miles of corn fields around the base," he
said, nudging at the cob underfoot. "It clogs everything: engines, boat motors.
It's everywhere."
(KA)
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